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MasterCard and Samsung prepare Samsung Pay Europe launch

Samsung is set to launch its upcoming payments service Samsung Pay in Europe within months, following a deal with MasterCard which will see Samsung Pay rolled out across the region using MasterCard’s Digital Enablement Service.

Samsung Pay is a mobile payment service that will enable consumers to use their Samsung mobile devices to make in-store purchases at contactless and magnetic stripe terminals using NFC and MST technology. Samsung Pay is scheduled to launch in the US and South Korea later this summer and Samsung is currently working with banks and partners to bring the payment service to Europe.

The service is a rival to Apple Pay, which launched in the UK this month. Earlier this year, MasterCard announced it would provide the tokenisation services to Samsung Pay for its secure transactions, enabling a quick scaling connection to bank partners in the US.

European card issuers will be able to connect to the MDES platform and activate the Samsung Pay service upon launch. Cardholders can activate their credit, debit, reloadable prepaid and small business cards from participating issuers in the Samsung Pay service and use their mobile devices to make everyday purchases.

Meanwhile, rival Visa announced back in March that it would also support Samsung Pay, starting in the US. In May, Visa Europe revealed that it would support Google’s Android Pay in Europe.

“Samsung Pay is pleased to join forces with MasterCard to offer a simple and safe mobile payment experience enabled for wider merchant acceptance to MasterCard cardholders and issuers in Europe,” said Injong Rhee, EVP of Samsung Electronics, global head of Samsung Pay. “Both organisations are committed to ground breaking fintech innovations that will deliver on the promise of a true mobile wallet.”

“With the continued global growth and reliance on connected mobile devices, we are delighted to expand our relationship with Samsung by extending the reach of Samsung Pay and MDES to cardholders in Europe,” said Javier Perez, president of MasterCard Europe. “Europeans have been leading the way in the adoption of new ways to shop, buy and make a payment. Through our strong partnership with Samsung we look forward to continuing to drive innovation in mobile commerce by creating simple and secure digital payment experiences for consumers,”

Since the announcement of MDES in 2013, millions of MasterCard accounts have been tokenised for use in popular digital wallet services. MDES currently provides tokenisation services for credit, debit, co-brand, prepaid and small business cards. Private label tokenisation, announced in June, will begin in the third quarter of this year. Tokenisation services for app, eCommerce, and recurring billing card-on-file programmes will be available to US and Canadian merchants later this year and expand globally across all MDES-enabled markets, according to MasterCard.

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